Chapter 41 #2
“You look beautiful,” he whispers against my ear.
“You’re definitely the sexiest small-business owner in Poulsbo.
” He chuckles as I shiver and grab his shirtfront, tugging him down to me for another kiss.
I’m not sure I’ll ever get tired of him walking across a room, eyes fixed on me like that.
It’s only been two months, but we both know where this is going.
We’ve even spoken the M-word, and I feel certain that our love story ends in forever.
Gus adores him, Mom adores him, and most important, I think he’s the best thing since sliced bread.
It took years in Europe, a few false starts, and some wrong turns, but I got here in the end, right where I’m supposed to be.
The door chimes again and a sweet, slightly disheveled Brit tumbles in, trailed by a cameraman. “Hullo, everyone.” Henry raises a hand. “Sorry for the delay. The traffic from the airport was dreadful.”
Even though he’s just come from a long flight, he looks camera-ready as always in a Breton striped shirt and his iconic navy swazer. He goes around the room, kissing cheeks and shaking hands. Then he stops and surveys the shop.
“Emmie, this is extraordinary. The craftsmanship, the tone—elegance meets whimsy. I love it!” He smiles at me in genuine delight.
“Can’t wait to show our viewers how this all turned out.
” He turns to the cameraman. “Crisanto, are you ready to film? I think we’re just going to do candid shots of this happy occasion. This all looks brilliant.”
“Hey everybody, it’s time for a toast,” Dani announces, breezing by us.
Henry and Crisanto quickly confer, and Crisanto gets his camera set up. “Ready when you are.” Henry gives us a thumbs-up.
Dani brings out a tray of champagne coupes from the kitchen, and Jakob pops the cork off the champagne.
I splurged on a few good bottles to celebrate.
Dani pours the bubbly and Dot hands out the glasses.
Even Gus gets a glass bottle of fancy sparkling soda, a thoughtful gesture from Mom.
I shudder to think how much sugar he’s consumed by now.
Oh well, it’s a celebration. Rare September sunshine streams through the big plate glass windows, filling the room with cheery, lemony light.
I feel like my heart might burst with happiness as I look at those I love crowded around.
Everyone holds their champagne at the ready.
Jakob slips up next to me and presses a hand to my back, his presence solid and steady.
My eyes glaze with unshed tears as I hold my coupe aloft.
“Thank you all for coming today,” I say.
“I’d like to raise the first toast to my parents for their love and dedication to family and their community, and for making the Happy Viking a place that brought joy to so many for so long.
To Gwen and Bert and the Happy Viking. Cheers! ”
“Cheers!” everyone calls out, circling the room and clinking their coupes. The champagne is fizzy and cold, as effervescent as my emotions right now. I feel fizzy and full of mingled grief and joy.
“And to another chapter in the history of this town, our family, and this place.” I raise my glass again. “To Sprinkle!”
“To Sprinkle!” everyone repeats, clinking glasses again and taking sips. Crisanto moves around the room, capturing all of this on film.
“Emmie,” Henry calls out. He comes over to me. Crisanto is standing nearby, filming everything.
“I have a little surprise for you.” Henry pauses dramatically and pulls a familiar-looking red leather box from his pocket. I stare at it in surprise. It looks like a ring box. Jakob moves a hair closer to me.
“She’s already spoken for, Summers,” he growls in a tone that is ninety-five percent joking and just a smidge not.
“Oh no.” Henry laughs self-consciously. “It’s nothing like that. Emmie, do you remember the box of chocolates you gave me as a going-away gift?”
“Yes.” I nod, unsure where this is going. I’d made a sampler box of all my favorites as a thank-you and a goodbye to Henry when he left.
“Well, I have something to confess.” Henry peers at me with a slightly guilty expression.
“I took some of them and entered them in that little competition in Brussels I mentioned to you once. It’s small but exclusive.
I didn’t tell you in case nothing came of it, but something did.
” He steps forward, tries to open the box, and fumbles with it.
Something falls out onto the floor. It looks like a silver medal of some kind, on a silk ribbon.
“How clumsy of me.” Henry kneels on the floor, puts the medal back into the open box, and lifts it toward me. It looks for all the world like he’s about to propose.
Beside me, I hear Dani draw in a sharp breath. “Emmie,” she hisses, elbowing me. “Look. It’s just like your vision.”
I glance around in surprise, and for a moment time hovers and halts.
She’s right. I am standing in the shop of my dreams, surrounded by my family and friends.
Henry is kneeling in front of me in a shaft of golden sunshine, holding out a red leather box, and I am wearing a dress the color of sunshine.
“Oh,” I breathe, stunned. “Oh!” It’s come true. The vision has come true, and yet nothing is quite how I imagined it. Henry is not proposing. Everything I saw is here, but different than I thought. It’s not what I expected. It’s better.
I take the box from Henry and stare at the silver medal. The inscription says my browned butter hazelnut toffee truffles took second place at the European Chocolatier Awards. Reverently, I touch the inscription with a finger. “For real?” I whisper.
“Jacques Genin was one of the judges, and he was very pleased to hear you were the creator of this award-winning entry,” Henry tells me, beaming as he gets to his feet.
“Of course he judged it blind, so only afterwards did he learn it was you. He said to give you this.” He leans toward me and presses a quick, chaste kiss to my cheek.
“Congratulations, Emmie,” he says, pulling back and grinning at me. “It is very well deserved.”
“This is amazing. Thank you,” I tell Henry, blinking away happy tears.
I press my hand to my chest, overcome with emotion.
I glance at Mom and Dot and Dani in turn.
Mom is sniffling and smiling. Dot is giving me two thumbs-up.
Dani is, for once, speechless. Jakob slips an arm around my waist, steadying me.
“Well, since we’re pulling out ring boxes,” he says with a pointed look at Henry. He moves around until he’s standing in front of me. “I was planning to do this before Henry stole my thunder,” he explains. He looks nervous.
“Going to do what?” I ask, confused. This wasn’t part of the vision.
I don’t know what’s coming next. And then suddenly Jakob is on one knee in front of me, gazing up at me with those glacial-blue eyes, now filled with warmth and tenderness.
He looks so handsome in his button-down shirt and bow tie. Suddenly I can’t breathe. Is he…
“Emmie Wynne, I’ve loved you from the start,” he says softly. “And I have a question for you.”
I press a hand to my chest. “What is happening?” I whisper in shock.
“I think you’re getting proposed to for real,” Dani calls out. “On camera. By hot bread-baking Thor. Just go with it.”
“Bread-baking Thor?” Jakob looks confused.
I’m vaguely aware of Crisanto in the background, filming the interaction. Everyone in the shop is watching with rapt attention.
“Gus, that’s your cue, buddy.” Jakob looks around and Gus springs into action. He hurries over and pulls a little blue velvet ring box from the pocket of his suit. A few sprinkles fall out onto the floor when he does so. I had a feeling he was stashing them somewhere.
“Here you go,” Gus says, handing the box to Jakob. Then he peers up at me. “Mommy, say yes,” he says, then runs back to his place beside Mom, job done.
I stare down at Jakob in shock. He’s on one knee, waiting patiently for me. “Ready?” he asks. I nod dumbly.
“I’m crazy about you, Emmie,” Jakob says, “and I’ve grown pretty attached to this guy too.” Jakob nods to Gus, who is noisily slurping his fancy soda through a straw. “You would make me the happiest man in the world if you’d do me the honor of marrying me.”
It’s so like Jakob, brief and to the point and filled with candor. I gaze at him for a moment, at the winking little diamond of the vintage ring he’s holding out to me.
“I’d love to,” I whisper.
The room erupts into whoops and applause.
Mom is outright happy-sobbing while Walt offers her a hanky, his arm around her protectively.
Gus thrusts his fist into the air and shouts, “Yippee!” Dot finds another bottle of champagne and splashes more into everyone’s glasses.
But in the middle of the joyful chaos, all I see is Jakob in front of me.
He slowly gets to his feet, takes my hand, and slips the ring onto my finger.
“It was my grandma’s,” he says, his voice low and gravelly with emotion. “If you don’t like it, we can get another.” I see a flash of uncertainty in his eyes.
“Don’t you dare. I love it.” I look up, up at him, and he bends to kiss me long and deep.
Someone wolf whistles, probably Dani, but we ignore them.
We break the kiss, but Jakob pulls me against his chest and holds me.
From the safe circle of his arms, I look around me at the celebration, misty-eyed.
This is going to make great television for our episode of Savor, but even more than that, it is going to make a great story to tell my grandchildren and great-grandchildren.
I’ll tell them all about how I almost gave all the pieces of myself away to make others happy, to fulfill others’ dreams and expectations, but just in time I learned to listen to my own heart, to make space for myself and my dreams too.
I learned to stop trying to control what I cannot control and instead found peace and plenty in charting my own course, in learning to listen to that little voice inside me that guided me toward those true and beautiful things in life that bring me joy and purpose and plenty.
I followed my heart, and just as Mom predicted, the vision for my purpose in life has come true in its own unexpected way.
“I have one more toast,” I announce, disentangling myself from Jakob’s arms. I raise my glass. “To life in all its perfect imperfections,” I say, choking up a little with wonder and tears of joy and gratitude. “And to unexpectedly happy endings. And finally, to sweet serendipity.”
I glance around the room, at Hilda and Sebastian and the others, at Walt and Dot and Dani, who is surreptitiously feeding Mr. Butters a doggy pot pie, and at Henry, who has turned out to be my guardian angel in a different way than I ever anticipated.
Across the room Mom is beaming at me. Beside her, Gus stands tall and proud, sipping his fancy soda and watching Jakob to see how he should act on this festive occasion.
Seeing their growing relationship warms my heart.
Finally I turn to Jakob. He’s standing right next to me, tall and steady, his blue eyes warm and tender as they focus on me.
He pulls me close to his side. I’ve never felt more loved.
Joy rises in my chest like the bubbles in my champagne, languid and golden.
I cannot believe this is my life. How perfectly imperfect. What a wonderful surprise.
We toast.